A view of Australia's detention of asylum seekers and a search for an antidote to the dictum "might makes right"

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Plaudits to a great blog - Road to Surfdom is winding up

I was saddened to click to the Road to Surfdom blog and find a post informing us of the winding up (temporarily I hope) of this great blog.

My blinkered efforts on behalf of refugees and other belaboured souls have trailed off since the election of the Rudd govt, which has a notional grasp on the universality of human rights, something the Howard govt singularly failed to understand.

I felt at the time of starting my blog that the mainstream media was largely inept in its analysis of human rights violations on Howard's watch. Although most bloggers with a political bent wear their hearts on their sleeves, they have battled to fill a vacant lot abandoned by media insiders in their slavish determination to be paid up members of the political club.

As Tim puts it so eloquently:

"The fact is, Australia’s mainstream media is moribund. Although there are great journalists and other contributors out there, the institution itself is stuck in a hopeless, self-serving, tenured cul-de-sac and is failing in its job to properly inform, discuss, debate and entertain. Not to mention, reinvent itself. The form is dominated by a handful of insiders who have grown so content with their own lot that they are immune to sensible criticism and lack the self-awareness to reassess what it is they are doing. They are supported in this self-satisfied loop by a political class that is happy to exploit the status quo, feeding them leaks and other tidbits to keep the whole charade ticking over in such a way that nothing really changes.

The narratives, the memes, the discussions of our political and social life are set in concrete and endlessly recycle. We have learned to accept the daily, largely manufactured, controversies of political and social discussion in lieu of genuine examination. The same voices — and there are only about 20 of them — continue to define what is important or useful or worthy of discussion and the few organs of the mainstream media keep churning them out. Their lack of seriousness is only matched by their lack of courage."

I'm a bit late but bon chance Tim in your next endeavours. Thanks for your brave insights comrade.